A subject is incarcerated in life by habitual beliefs, derived from authority. People in authority have the power to control other people (subjects). Habitual beliefs mature in a subjects mind from childhood, until the subject has built a reality that is finite, determined, and obvious. Belief is the mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in another’s idea (American Heritage® Dictionary). Ideas are mental calculations. In a subject’s built-up world of beliefs, new ideas are contemptuously abandoned, confining them in a built-up fortress in the mists of a greater reality, which is uncertain. A subject’s fear of conflict stops the subject from questioning these beliefs brought forth by authority. But, when a subject’s habitual belief is no more viable to their situation, the subject is forced to question the belief. “The irritation of doubt causes a struggle to attain a state of belief,” wrote Charles Sanders Pierce (Copi and Cohen 72).
The Masonic Book, THE KYBALION - A Study of The Hermetic Philosophies of Ancient Egypt and Greece, described mental control, as “An idea thus lodged in the mind of another person grows and develops, and in time is regarded as the rightful mental offspring of the individual, whereas it is in reality like the cuckoo egg placed in the sparrows nest, where it destroys the rightful offspring and makes itself at home” (Three Initiates 205).
After birth, humans perceive the world as centering on their physical needs. As humans learn language skills, they start to identify with other human beings. This revolution in thought causes defiance, but by six years the subject starts to look to authority for answers in an uncertain world. Institutional authority in form of schools and media replaces parental authority. Schools assimilate subjects into conformity by creating social norms.
A norm is a standard, model, or pattern regarded as normal (American Heritage® Dictionary). Norms are enforced using tradition, rewards and laws to teach, persuade or force subjects into assimilation. The more norms the subjects know, the better approval of the established society will be. Approval and rewards for compliance to learned norms, and punishment to subjects who deviate from the norms. This molding is called social control. Social control makes subjects docile. Docile is the willingness to be taught beliefs (American Heritage® Dictionary). When a subject is docile, they are ready and willing to yield to supervision, direction, or management.
While teaching social control, authority educates subjects on the basic communication skills such as math, reading, and writing so subjects can receive beliefs from central authority, without going through an intermediary.
Authority does not disseminate beliefs for the benefit of the subject, but educates a subject to rely on them for ideas. Subjects are taught short cuts in knowledge, such as vocational school, instead of liberal arts; Hook on Phonix, instead of epistemology and the English Measurement System instead of the Metric System. Mathematics is taught through memorization of numbers as objects, false terminology that becomes obsolete, and calculations through calculators, instead of teaching relativity of numbers, correct terminology from the beginning, and mathematical reasoning. History is taught as nationalist propaganda focus on wealthy leaders, instead of the evolution of human thought. Authority educates subjects not to make their own ideas, but to rely on them for their beliefs.
The tool for questioning beliefs is logic. Logic is “the study of the method and principles used to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning” (Copi and Cohen 694). Logic is the tool that science uses to study the world; it also started the technological revolution. Unfortunately, authority does not teach this basic tool of language to their subjects.
Mental defined as the assimilation of our senses, memory, and reasoning performed by the mind, existing in the mind (American Heritage® Dictionary). With this definition, mental is everything. You are mental therefore; you are everything. If the universe is totally mental, and authority controls the subject’s beliefs, then they control the subject’s universe.
There is no conflict when someone else controls a subject’s mentality, for a subject is powerless. Teaching of a “Higher Power” controlling a subject’s fate is a product of being powerless. Whether the subject believes in the creator of the Big Bang, or the big man in the sky, his belief is based on someone else’s idea. The subject was never taught the liberal art of logic, and therefore does not have a formula for questioning authority. Without this knowledge, the subject is trapped by the chains of ignorance, and will never be freed from the cave. To free ourselves from the bondage of mental slavery, we must teach every citizen the liberal art of logic.
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